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Thursday, August 7, 2014

A Game of Murals | Westeros & changing times in East Belfast

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Even if you’ve never been to Northern
Ireland, you probably know about our murals. Certainly, no visit to Belfast
appears to be complete without a trip on one of the number of ‘troubles tours’
busses to some of the less than salubrious quarters of the city in search of
this form of painted gable sectarianism. Much has been written about their
origins, meaning, symbolism, and all that and, should the mood take you, you
can read about it in the Wiki article: here. The
Wiki article gives some examples of the genre, as does the rather good Belfast Murals site: here. However you look at it, the
murals break down into two main groups:

1) Murals by ‘themuns’
– they’re sectarian, they’re ugly, they glorifying terrorism, and they’re
probably not particularly well made … which, quite frankly, is all you can
expect from a bunch of savages like that!

2) Murals by ‘usuns’ – they proudly display our beautiful, inclusive
culture and commemorate our fallen freedom fighters. They are genuine works of
art that are far superior to the disgusting daubs perpetrated by ‘themuns’.

You can see some examples of both from my own collection,
taken in 2002: here.

However, there’s a third group of murals that no
one really seems to know what to do with. The Wiki article calls them ‘other’,
while the Belfast Murals site allows you to filter your search by ‘Social/Cultural Murals’. If it’s
not obviously about themuns or usuns, it appears that we are unable or
unwilling to process it.

Building the bonfire on the Comber Greenway July 2014

A little while ago, I wrote a brief piece for this
blog about the 2014 Game
of Thrones Exhibition in Belfast. My theme at that time was that, although it
was a selection of the costumes and props on display (beautiful as they are), it was the Northern Irish landscape and a number of our heritage sites used in the filming that
were of more interest to me. Then as now, I’d suggest that if you are planning a
holiday to these parts, you could do so much worse than adding some of these
places to your itinerary. Obviously,
the filming of this series in Northern Ireland has had a very positive impact
on our economy, with literally millions of pounds being spent here by the
production crew. It has also been a boon for unshaven, long-haired, and
generally unkempt men that are suddenly welcomed with open arms as multitudes
of well-paid extras (you know who you are!). What I hadn’t realised at the time
was how much the idea of the books and TV series have sunk into the wider consciousness.
The Wiki article referred to above describes the Northern Irish murals as ‘a
mirror of political change’. I would only amend that to add that it can also act
as a barometer for broader cultural change too.

Morning of the 12th July 2014, Comber Greenway

In 2014, when some folks
were building a giant bonfire to celebrate the 12th of July on the Comber Greenway in
East Belfast, someone was doing something completely different right
beside them. This is a large-scale mural celebration of Game of Thrones. It uses iconic
images from the series (the Iron Throne of the Seven Kingdoms
of Westeros; Jon Snow’s white Direwolf, Ghost; and one of Daenerys
Targaryen’s dragons)
all set against a flowing, and somewhat frayed, map of the GoT universe, itself
on a black background. As far as I can tell, the geographical names (e.g.Qarth, King’s Landing, Storm’s End, Riverrun, etc.) are added in, if not quite at
random, then to create a balanced and pleasing image, as opposed to remaining
true to the ‘real’ geography of the GoT world - though they are most certainly poorly punctuated. One visual element that
initially caught me out was the manner of the depiction of the Iron Throne
itself. The version known on the TV
series, and from the
books, is a very, sharp, spiky affair, known to draw blood from its
incumbents. However, this version was all cylinders and rounded ends … I
initially interpreted them as artillery cannon and thought there was
some deeper militaristic or political message being communicated. It was only a
little while later that I realised that they were actually the type of aerosol spray
cans used to create this work. If anything – my lack of cultural savvy, aside –
this must reinforce the distance between this and the ‘traditional’ sectarian
and political murals. Instead, it is much more a part of the contemporary
graffiti and street art
movements, more influenced by hip
hop music than ‘drum and fife’. Some of the locals of east Belfast may
still engage in sickening
racist attacks, but scenes like this give some hope that we’re moving away
from a narrow, provincial world view to one that’s wider, brighter and more accepting
of external cultural influences. Long may they paint!

Panoramic shot the the largest section of the GoT mural (click for larger image)

In the final section, I just wanted to add a few
details of the mural, emphasising as much the image as the texture of the wall on which it is
painted – partially flaked, with lumps, bumps and scores in the concrete … it has been home to numerous murals in the past and will, I am sure, be again in the future ... I'm just pausing for a moment to record this layer!Well, I thought it was interesting!